Topics
Kanggye, 
North Korea
310,432 people lived in Kanggye in 2025. It is the 1854th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 8th largest in North Korea.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Kanggye grew
For every 10 people in Kanggye in 1975, there were 19.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 304,581 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Kanggye through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kanggye in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
North Korea · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 104 cities in North Korea in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Pyongyang. The ringed dot in colour is Kanggye; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Kanggye covered 28 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 3.8 km² of it. That is 12 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in North Korea
Its share of North Korea
Of every 100 people in North Korea in 2025, 1 lived in Kanggye, which is 310,432 people.
How to read this: shrink North Korea to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kanggye; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1850 Aktau Kazakhstan310,607
- 1851 Campos dos Goytacazes Brazil310,590
- 1852 Sungai Petani Malaysia310,566
- 1853 Emeishan China310,503
- 1854 Kanggye310,432
- 1855 Yuanlin City Taiwan310,380
- 1856 Beed India310,278
- 1857 Taubaté Brazil310,170
- 1858 Huairou China309,856
In North Korea, 2025
- 1398 Sariwon404,672
- 1525 Wonsan373,596
- 1576 Jakdo-dong363,071
- 1679 Pyŏngsŏng340,370
- 1854 Kanggye310,432
- 3547 Nampo170,683
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kanggye are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Kanggye publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries